Thursday, September 13, 2007

If Only I Wasn't Telling the Truth

I love reading the funny searches that bring visitors to people's blogs. I don't usually write about the interesting googles that bring people to my blog, because honestly, it's usually something like "Amy Carmichael biography" which brings them to this post, or (several times a week) "Penderwicks discussion questions", which leads them to request this resource, or something along the lines of "bossy disorganized advice about Bible study" which would lead them to any number of posts.

However something I saw recently stopped me in my tracks: "teens wearing Pull-Ups." Oh no! Are we going to be un-trained forever? I am still using Pull-Ups as my safety net. A couple of weeks ago when we met a friend at the park, I didn't, and guess what? We had to change his shorts before he got in the car. The thing is that he doesn't care. He doesn't care if he has "an accident" (a term which I use extremely loosely, since "accident" implies that he is unaware of what will happen), whether he's in underwear or a Pull-Up. He's aware of the consequences, and that they are the same whether he makes a puddle or it's contained in training pants. So, the only difference is that it's less of a mess for me.

This week I've actually braved public with no Pull-Ups and he's been fine. In fact I think that we've been at least three days with no accidents at all. Yesterday and today I even stopped setting the timer to see what would happen if I left him on his own, and he's done a great job. Both types of elimination have gone into the potty!

Nighttime is still definitely a Pull-Up safety net time, and that's not even something that I care about achieving full dryness. We will be at Terry's brother's wedding next weekend, and that will also be a safety-net kind of event, no matter what success he achieves in the next week.

I was just wondering how to end this post in a cute, funny, or especially insightful way, when I looked up to see Kyle giving me a sheepish look. He was wet. Irony is also a good literary device, is it not?

12 comments:

What is it about boys not caring if they are wet? Just don't get that! My oldest (4) has started having "accidents" again. And I quote "I didn't want to stop playing." Oh, baby! This is NOT acceptable. At this moment I have 3 baskets of laundry waiting to be put away and about 3 more waiting to be washed. I always comfort myself that they will be trained before they are teenagers but now I'm not so sure! = )

I read that pullups keep kids from being potty trained because they don't feel the wet. They don't feel uncomfortable. One blogger Mom told me she went back to diapers and even used cloth just so her boy would feel wet. It did the trick.

I wish I had some magical advice to give you, but I have to echo the others in saying that it will come. Kyle's made a lot of progress, and now he'll be seeing all his preschool buddies in their big kid underwear, staying dry. Boys can be so stubborn, so not-caring, but eventually it happens. I'm glad he's been doing better this week (well, not counting the little incident at the end of your post), and I think Pull-Ups as safety nets are just fine, and often necessary!